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Re: The Music Thread

It took 14 years to make, but D'Angelo is finally set to release his follow up to the neo-soul classic "Voodoo". There is an industry listening party set for tonight for the debut of "Black Messiah", and the first single, "Sugah Daddy", dropped on SoundCloud a little earlier today.

Before Madonna had even announced the official title and release date of her upcoming 2015 album, leaked Madonna tracks allegedly comprising the entire album have hit the Internet. Shortly after Twitter exploded with the news, Madge herself took to Instagram to comment on the situation. She dismissed the leaked versions as "unfinished demos stolen long ago" and thanked fans for their "loyalty" in "not listening" to the unfinished material.

At this point, Madonna presumably wishes she lived in an exclusively material, non-digital world.

Featuring production from Diplo, Avicii, Natalia Kills and Ryan Tedder, the album is purportedly called Unapologetic Bitch (nodding to a favorite hashtag of Rihanna's?) or Iconic.

Guy Oseary ✔ @guyoseary
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I would be grateful to any @madonna fans that can assist us in finding those responsible for the leak.. We appreciate your help..

One of the leaked demos -- "Bitch I'm Madonna" -- comes with a very dubstep-y bass drop (presumably a Diplo track), while "Joan of Arc" is a gentle ballad. The title track allegedly features a verse from former collaborator Nicki Minaj, although the leaked demo version is Minaj-free. All 13 tracks are making the rounds on YouTube and torrent sites, but keep in mind Madonna's stern, disapproving face before you listen.

You can check out the alleged tracklist for Madonna's 2015 album below (via ONTD).

Re: The Music Thread

Easily one of the biggest recording artists of the 80s and 90s (and part of a legendary 70s era band when Peter Gabriel was their lead singer, and Phil played drums), the long long missing Phil Collins opens up about depression, alcohol, his inability to play drums anymore, and a lot more:

Phil Collins on life losing its rhythm: I couldn't get out of bed in mornings

With an estimated £120million in the bank, 250 million records sold and seven Grammy awards, Phil Collins should have been able to retire happily.

But away from the cameras and glamour, the Genesis frontman found himself alone, drinking wine at 11am and struggling to get up in the morning.

After his third marriage collapsed and his ex-wife moved hundreds of miles away with the youngest of his five children, the singer began to lead an increasingly recluse-like existence.

Soon, battling severe pancreatitis and with no cure for a career-threatening tendon injury, the 63-year-old began sinking towards depression.

It was only pals, including bandmates Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks, and the support of doctors which eventually helped to pull him out of the mire.

He says: “I was taking medication for this and for that and the mix made me start to fall over as my pancreas was taking a beating. This time I’d fallen and split my head open.

"I was in my hospital room, Mike and Tony came in and said, ‘We just want to see how you are. Sure we can’t do anything?’ It was lovely.

“Peter Gabriel rang and said, ‘I’m not sure about you retiring – not for the kids, you become a bit needy’. I took his point but nobody understands your life like you do.

"I’ve been married three times and I have five children – I don’t live with any of my wives or any of my children, that gets sad sometimes.”

Phil’s first marriage to Andrea Bertorelli lasted five years, his second to Jill Tavelman for 12 years, while his third, to Orianne Cevey ended after five years.

For the past eight years, he has been dating American TV news presenter Dana Tyler, 55, although he is firm when he says he is unlikely to wed again. Three divorces are said to have cost him £42m, so little wonder he is wary.

The multi-Brit-winner has Simon, 37 and adopted daughter Joely, 42, from his marriage to Andrea, Lily, 25, his daughter with Jill and Nicholas, 13, and Matthew, nine, from his marriage to Orianne.

Today, Phil splits his time between New York, his place in Switzerland or a Miami hotel to be near his kids.

Speaking from a suite near his Manhattan home, he adds: “The retirement process started in 2004 when Matthew was born.

“I thought I’m going to do this the right way – I don’t need another gold record, or any gratuity and gratification; I want to stop and bring my kids up.

"And then stuff happens you can’t control. You get a divorce so I’m not living with my kids.

“Then they moved to Miami and I’m suddenly retired and I don’t have the kids. So then I’m getting up and watching cricket, turning on the television at 11am and having a bottle of wine.

“I was never an alcoholic; I just got to be doing that most days.

“But you have to have a reason to get up and my manager keeps saying: ‘You have to do something.’ But right now I don’t really feel the urge to record.

“My doctor said ‘I can stop you drinking but I can’t give you a reason to get up in the morning’. I stopped drinking 18 months ago but they’re still trying to find me that reason.”

Re: The Music Thread

Sam Smith forced to pay Tom Petty royalties for song 'Stay With Me

Sam Smith is paying Tom Petty songwriting royalties for his single 'Stay With Me' after listeners noted a similarity between the song and Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers' 1989 classic 'I Won't Back Down'.

Though details of the case have just come to light, The Sun reports that Smith and Petty settled out of court in October – an arrangement that included a 12.5 per cent writing credit to both Petty and singer-composer Jeff Lynne.

The song’s credit on ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers) now lists Smith, Petty, Lynne, and Jimmy Napes as the chief songwriters.

A source close to the case said: "When Sam’s track was originally released, it was clear to a lot of musicians that Smith had flat out plagiarised Pettythere were notable similarities between the tracks. After it was pointed out to Sam’s camp, they knew they were bustedthey didn’t try to fight it and amicably dished out royalties. It waswasn’t a deliberate thing, musicians often steal other people's songsare just inspired by other artists and Sam and his team were quick to hold up their hand when it was officially flagged." (strikeouts added)

'Stay With Me' has sold nearly four million copies worldwide and is up for both Best Pop Performance and Record Of The Year at the 2015 Grammy Awards. Sam Smith was the only artist to sell one million albums in the UK and US in 2014 with his debut record, 'In The Lonely Hour'.

Re: The Music Thread

Originally Posted by Ti-Amie

Oh I'm not familiar with the Bolton/Isley Brothers. Do tell!

In 1964, the American R&B group The Isley Brothers recorded a song titled "Love Is a Wonderful Thing". Not included on an Isley Brothers album until years later, the song was released as a single in 1966 on a 45-rpm vinyl record, and it "bubbled under" on the Billboard pop chart, meaning that it peaked at #110 on the Hot 100. Bolton's song contained similarities to the song by the Isleys that exceeded the title: in 1994, a jury found songwriters Bolton and Goldmark, along with Sony Music Entertainment (the parent company of Bolton's label, Columbia Records), liable for copyright infringement due to multiple similarities between the two songs and ordered them to pay the Isleys all profits earned from the single plus 28% of the album profits, which amounted to over $5 million (U.S.). On May 9, 2000, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, an appellate court covering the western regions of the U.S., affirmed the jury's decision, which is one of the largest monetary sums to be awarded in a case such as this. On January 22, 2001, the Supreme Court of the United States declined to review the decision of the appellate court despite Bolton's claims that he had never heard the Isley Brothers recording (although he was a fan of their music) and that he was exercising his right to "independent creation". The decision by the Supreme Court not to hear the case resulted in the original verdict remaining valid.

Re: The Music Thread

LOS ANGELES — At the Grammys’ annual charity gala on Friday, Bob Dylan stole the show without singing a single note.

In a wide-ranging 35-minute speech that had the 3,000 or so music executives and stars in the audience hanging on his every word, Mr. Dylan touched on the roots of his songwriting, the musicians who inspired him, and the naysaying of critics and others along the way.

It was an extremely rare and revealing speech from Mr. Dylan, 73, but in his usual fashion it was anything but straightforward. Reading from a thick cache of papers, he spoke in what at times was a kind of rhapsodic, canny prose-poetry, like one of his lyrics or an outtake from his 2004 memoir, “Chronicles, Volume One.”

“These songs of mine,” he said, “they’re like mystery plays, the kind Shakespeare saw when he was growing up. I think you could trace what I do back that far. They were on the fringes then, and I think they’re on the fringes now.”

Mr. Dylan was accepting the person of the year award from MusiCares, a charity affiliated with the Grammys that supports musicians in financial need or in health crises. Since MusiCares began in 1989, it has distributed nearly $40 million in aid, according to the group, and the event on Friday, at the Los Angeles Convention Center, raised a record $7 million through sales of tickets and memorabilia.

The night was packed with performances of Mr. Dylan’s songs by the likes of Bruce Springsteen; Neil Young; Norah Jones; Sheryl Crow; Willie Nelson; Jack White; Tom Jones; and Crosby, Stills and Nash. The award to Mr. Dylan was presented by former President Jimmy Carter, who said that Mr. Dylan’s “words on peace and human rights are much more incisive, much more powerful and much more permanent than those of any president of the United States.”

Mr. Dylan began with thanks to people who helped his career early on, like John Hammond, the storied talent scout who signed him to Columbia Records, and Peter, Paul and Mary, whose version of “Blowin’ in the Wind” gave Mr. Dylan his first big hit, in 1963. He paid tribute to Joan Baez, Jimi Hendrix and Johnny Cash, and also thanked the Byrds, the Turtles and Sonny and Cher, whose covers brought him more pop hits, even if, he said, he never wanted to be a pop songwriter.

“Their versions of songs were like commercials,” he said. “But I didn’t really mind that, because 50 years later my songs were used for commercials. So that was good too.”

He gave a lesson in the folk-inspired songwriting process, saying that “my songs didn’t just come out of thin air — I didn’t just make them up.” Giving numerous examples, Mr. Dylan showed how the traditional songs he sang in his youth inspired his own writing “subliminally and unconsciously.”

“If you sang ‘John Henry’ as many times as me — ‘John Henry was steel-driving man, driving with a hammer in his hand, John Henry said a man ain’t nothing but a man,’ ” he said. “If you sang that song as many times as I did, you would have written ‘How many roads must a man walk down,’ too.”

Mr. Dylan took jabs at music icons like the songwriters Leiber and Stoller (“Yakety Yak,” “Stand by Me”), saying that he didn’t care that they didn’t like his songs, because he didn’t like theirs either. Nashville wasn’t spared. In barely diplomatic terms, Mr. Dylan mocked the country songwriter Tom T. Hall, saying that his sentimental 1973 song “I Love” (“I love baby ducks, old pickup trucks”) was “a little overcooked,” and implying that Mr. Hall was part of an old guard that was bemused and left behind by the musical revolution of the 1960s and ‘70s.

But he saved most of his bile for critics, clearly showing that he has read enough of his reviews over the years to let them get under his skin. “Critics have been giving me a hard time since Day 1,” he said. “Critics say I can’t sing. I croak. Sound like a frog.” He paused, as nervous giggles spread through the crowd. “Why don’t critics say the same thing about Tom Waits?” (Well, actually, they do.)

Mr. Dylan wound up his speech with tender comments about his friend Billy Lee Riley, a 1950s rockabilly singer on Sun Records, the original home of Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash. Known to collectors for his 1957 song “Red Hot,” Mr. Riley never made it big. When he got sick, Mr. Dylan said, MusiCares helped pay Mr. Riley’s medical bills and mortgage, to help make his life “at least comfortable, tolerable, to the end, and that is something that can’t be repaid.” Mr. Riley died in 2009.

Usually the annual MusiCares concerts, which in the past have featured stars like Barbra Streisand, Paul McCartney and Mr. Springsteen, end with a performance by the honoree, but after a few quick photos from the stage Mr. Dylan was off, and Mr. Young ended the night with a haunting “Blowin’ in the Wind.” As the high-heeled and tuxedoed crowd filtered out, few seemed to complain.